Saint Andrew Avellino

Andrew (Andrea) Avellino (1521 – 10 November 1608) was an Italian Theatine priest. He is venerated as the patron saint of Naples and Sicily and invoked especially against a sudden death. He led a life busy in preaching, hearing confessions, and visiting the sick, and writing. Born at Castronuovo (today Castronuovo di Sant'Andrea), a small town in the province of Potenza, in Basilicata, his baptismal name was Lancelotto, which he changed to Andrew when he entered the Order of Theatines. After receiving his elementary training in the school at Castronuovo, he was sent to Venice to pursue a course in the humanities and in philosophy. Being a handsome youth, his chastity was often exposed to danger from female admirers, and to escape their importuning he took ecclesiastical tonsure. He went to Naples to study canon and civil law, obtained the degree of Doctor of Laws and was ordained priest at the age of twenty-six. For some time he held the office of lawyer at the ecclesiastical court of Naples. The archbishop of Naples now commissioned him to reform a convent at Naples, which by the laxity of its discipline had become a source of great scandal. By his own example and his untiring zeal, he restored the religious discipline of the convent but not without many and great difficulties. Certain wicked men who were accustomed to having clandestine meetings with the nuns became exasperated at the saint's interference, and one night he was assaulted and severely wounded. He was brought to the monastery of the Theatines to recuperate. Here, however, he resolved to devote himself entirely to God and he entered the Order of Theatines, which had only recently been founded by Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene. In 1556, on the vigil of the Assumption he was invested, being then thirty-five years of age, and took the name of Andrew.